Fostering Leeds – Your local fostering office

Welcome to the Swiis team in Leeds.

We organise regular support group meetings for the Leeds office and South Yorkshire region. These alternate between foster carer network meetings which are informal and sometimes take place in foster carers homes, and the more formal support group meetings, which are facilitated by a Swiis Social Worker or other team member and often include a training element.

We regularly have young adults, with relevant experience of the looked after system, offering volunteer time to talk with our carers and help out with children. This is in addition to the “buddy” system we offer, whereby pre-approved and experienced foster carers meet informally to offer support and mentoring.

We also have our ‘Caring Crew’, a dedicated group for our carers’ own children who are given the opportunity if they choose, to share experiences as ‘children who foster’ and are recognised for the real difference they make in their fostering families.

Children’s achievements are recognised through “well done” cards and certificates, as well as special mentions in the Leeds Swiis newsletter.

Carer Training Locations

Choose a training location that suits you. We offer foster carer training in our main office in Leeds and in Doncaster.

Local initiatives

We have strong ties within the community, with direct links to local safeguarding boards and other agencies, such as the Child Sexual Exploitation service, “Blast Project”, that Swiis carers and staff join up with in order to utilise free, local and up-to-date training.

Events

We hold an annual Christmas party, with DJ and Santa, for all our carers, children and young people, as well as organising group picnics in the summer and activities and events every school holiday. As part of our participation strategy, we respond to activity requests from the children and young people in placements so they can have their say in what’s on offer.

Christmas has well and truly arrived in our Leeds Yorkshire office - with a team of little helpers lending a hand to get our office ready for the Christmas season. Placement Support Worker, Alison Strodder-Murphy [...]